First 36-channel magnetocardiographic study of CAD patients in an unshielded laboratory for interventional and intensive cardiac care

The first 36-channel Magnetocardiographic (MCG) system, successfully installed in the Biomagnetism Research Center, Catholic University of Rome, has been tested to evaluate the reliability of this novel instrumentation for the study of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), in an "unshielded" laboratory for interventional and emergency cardiac care. 13 patients, with coronary disease documented by angiography, 8 patients with abnormality of non-invasive studies (exercise-ECG or SPECT), and 13 healthy controls (age-matched) were investigated at rest. Other 6 cases were investigated, before and after stress test with a standard ergometer. The sensitivity of the system was 20 fT/√Hz, at 1Hz. After morphological evaluation, quantitative analysis of magnetocardiographic repolarization parameters was performed according to Hänninen et al. and Park et al. At rest, magnetocardiographic mapping has shown abnormality of repolarization in 95.2% of CAD patients, with sensibility of 92.6%, specificity of 92.3%, and predictive value 92.3%